Match Review

25th March 2001 Gedling Town 4 v 0 Burton Joyce

Scorer:

Boys, manager and parents all knew that we would be up against it today. The pre-match talk was upbeat, due the fact that when BJ are on form they can beat anyone. The weather was overcast and quite cold, the pitch sticky but not too wet.

BJ captain James Bird made a canny move when he won the toss by switching ends so BJ could play with the slope in the first half. The half started fairly nip and tuck with play switching from end to end fairly rapidly. To be honest no side looked like scoring until midway through the half when Gedling found a gap in the BJ defence and slotted in a well taken goal. As has happened in some recent matches before BJ had chance to regroup Gedling went further ahead after a superbly struck corner was not cleared. 2-0. Gedling nearly went 3 up but the low shot hit the foot of the post and bounced wide.Half time 2-0.

BJ had decided to swap players quite regularly during the match, the plan was to work hard, get tired and come off for a rest. To a degree this worked fairly well, the pitch was quite small compared to most we've played on and our mid-fielders especially Sam Smith were covering all the pitch fairly easily. Despite playing up the slope BJ had the better of the beginning of the second half, but try as we might the ball would not go near the net. As the half went on Gedling came back into the game and forced a succession of corners which caused BJ much concern and in fact Gedlings third goal came from such a corner. Again the cross was only half cleared and Gedling fired it in. Heads began to drop, not beacuse of the scoreline but mainly because there did not seem to be any way back into the game. Gedling hit the post twice before adding a fourth goal shortly after and the game finished 4-0.

Verdict : Probably a fair result on the day.

Manager's Comment : "This was always going to be a tough one as Gedling have only lost once this season. The lads played well but were beaten fairly on the day. Congratulations to Gedling on winning the Championship, they are a very good team."

Performance of the Week : Sam Smith - Sam played very well today. He was all over the pitch and worked hard all the game. Sam has also been working hard in training. Well done Sam!!





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